Lewis Hamilton predicts the high-speed nature of the Lusail circuit will provide a “challenge” for Mercedes this weekend but hopes the team can still fight Ferrari.
Mercedes struggled extensively at Suzuka last time out, with Hamilton, who ended up an entire second away from pole position, documenting that the W14 car was on a “knife edge” throughout his laps in qualifying.
Ahead of Qatar’s return to the Formula 1 calendar presenting the drivers and teams with a similar high-speed circuit configuration, Hamilton anticipates Mercedes being on the backfoot once again.
However, the Briton remains optimistic that the Brackley squad can compete with Ferrari, despite the Italian marque appearing to have gained the upper hand in recent rounds.
Asked if Mercedes could take lessons from its Japan troubles to improve its outlook for this weekend, Hamilton said: “It’s [Mercedes’ performance] constantly shifting.
“We come here optimistic, we always arrive optimistic. And [then] you have to get in the car and often you’re obviously faced with all these different curveballs and stuff, but we’re on our toes, we’re ready to handle and deal with whatever we’re faced with.
“We know that coming here that this is a medium and high-speed circuit, this is not where our strengths are. And so it will be a challenge.
“We know that we’re realistic and who we can compete with. We generally won’t be able to compete with the Red Bull.
“But of course, we’re hopeful that we can fight with the Ferraris this weekend. And even though the Ferraris had an upgrade, and they were particularly quick over the last races, we still kept them on the toes in Singapore and obviously finished ahead of one of them in the last race, so [it] just shows [that] nothing is impossible.”
Although Hamilton was eventually able to split the two Ferraris on race day in Japan, the Maranello camp managed to outscore Mercedes for the third consecutive weekend.
Having upheld a 56-point buffer in the Constructors’ Championship at the summer break, Mercedes is now only 20 points clear of Ferrari in the battle for second place.
Regardless of where the German marque ends the campaign, Hamilton insists he is “proud” of the way Mercedes has rebounded from its challenging start to the year.
“We’re definitely not comfortably second,” Hamilton assessed. “Ferrari are putting up a really strong fight. They’ve done an amazing job in the last couple of races, so it’s going to be a real good battle.
“I’m really excited about this last back half of the season to see if we can really squeeze more juice out of this car and try and finish ahead of them, but it’s going to take a real team effort. I’m really proud of where we are considering where we started at the beginning.”
Meanwhile, Hamilton overhauled Fernando Alonso for third place in the Drivers’ standings recently and is only 33 points shy of Sergio Perez, who retired at Suzuka.
But the seven-time World Champion asserts that securing second place for the team is more important than him potentially beating the Red Bull driver to the runners-up spot.
“I mean, it’s ultimately largely dependent on Checo’s performance moving forward, as he should easily have second, as you know, but I’m really proud of where we are, where I’ve managed to get to,” he responded when asked about catching Perez.
“I think really proud of [the] race performances so far [this year], of course, want to try and do better and do more. And if we were able to get second, it would be amazing, but the main focus is really trying to get second for the team.”
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